“Ubuntu”

An anthropologist tells a story

Of how he proposed a game

To children in an African village;

The game was played like this:

 

He places a fruit basket underneath a tree,

Then tells the children the first to reach it

Will be classed as the winner and can have it all,

But as soon as he calls out “Run!”

 

The children look at each other, then all grasp

Each other’s hands and run forward

All together, and then they all run back with the basket

And then they all sit down to enjoy it.

 

When the anthropologist asked them

Why they’d run like that, in unison,

Instead of their letting a winner take all

And have all the fruit for himself,

 

They’d said, “Ubuntu” “What’s Ubuntu?”

The anthropologist asked, bemused.

“How can one of us be happy,” they’d reply,

“If all the others are sad?”

 

Ubuntu’s an African philosophy

And the word Ubuntu translates:

“I am what I am because of who we all are.”

Or, being selfish makes no sense.

 

But its spirit’s forgotten if people are programmed

By money and competitive tyranny

To believe that the world is more efficiently run

By opulent psychopaths using violence.

 

Arms are exported to Africa to allow corporate power

To elbow its rivals for resources to one side:

Rivals for oil; for diamonds; for gold and for coltan,

But none of them can be as good for you as fruit.

 

Heathcote Williams

 

 


By Heathcote Williams

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9 Responses to “Ubuntu”

    1. I love love love love this :)!!! hi Heth! kiss E

      Comment by Elena Caldera on 15 November, 2012 at 9:59 am
    2. lovely story…

      Comment by Roddy McDevitt on 20 November, 2012 at 5:27 pm
    3. Decided to re-publish this poem from November 2012 (Heathcote’s birthday, as it happened) as to me it captures much of the essence of what he stood for. It’s one of my favourite poems of his, and bearing in mind we published one poem per week on IT over the last five years there’s a lot to choose from, aside from all his other works. Being so prolific never stunted the quality of his output. This poem captures the intentions of the Heathcote I knew, a deeply caring man who cast his net wide as mentor and teacher, using his skills as a wordsmith to affect our holistic view on how to care for each other and the planet on both a local and world scale. If we were to adhere to the message of this poem, many of the world’s problems would disappear, something that seemed to lie at the heart of what Heathcote was all about and what he strove for. Ubuntu! With thanks and love xx

      Comment by Claire on 11 July, 2017 at 7:05 pm
    4. Beautiful indeed! Good medicine for troubled times. Ubuntu!

      Comment by Heidi Stephenson on 12 July, 2017 at 7:11 am
    5. “How can one of us be happy if all the others are sad?”
      Yup.
      Wise man Heathcote.

      Comment by Dafydd ap Pedr on 12 July, 2017 at 11:48 am
    6. Fantastic!

      Comment by Jez on 12 July, 2017 at 12:35 pm
    7. What a delight to read. I would love to think that with effort I could take this on board.

      Comment by Peter Wadds JEFFERY OAM on 14 July, 2017 at 6:37 am
    8. Many and wondrous
      are the gifts that love can bring,
      priceless wisdom’s love.

      Comment by Hans Echnaton Schano on 14 July, 2017 at 8:50 am
    9. what a poem and what an extraordinarily beautiful photo
      my mum told me
      fruit was good for me
      she and Heathcote
      were right
      and most people I know
      and all those I like
      are right
      and right
      is better than
      might

      Comment by jeff cloves on 10 December, 2017 at 7:46 pm

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